If anybody would know street basketball legends, Nate “Tiny” Archibald would. And he knew Tyrone Evans. Archibald learned and played the game in the same city, on the same playgrounds, and knew Evans well off the court and in his personal life.

He also knew him by his nickname, “Alimoe." Sometimes, he was called “the Black Widow." But “Alimoe” was the one that stuck most.

“There are probably a billion guys who really never got a chance to do it on another level, and he’s one of those billion guys who never got that chance," Archibald said by phone Tuesday morning.

Archibald had just heard that Alimoe died recently, reportedly from complications of a stroke; he had been ill for some time from diabetes, Archibald said. Because of his health, Alimoe had not played much in recent years. But at his peak, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was a sight to behold.

“He played everywhere," Archibald recalled. “He was from Harlem, and he played against guys like Shammgod Wells (former Providence star and briefly an NBA player, later known as God Shammgod) and Kareem Reid (a star at Arkansas who played professionally overseas). A big guard, a small forward, could dribble, had all the moves."

Moves that remained a treasured secret among playground-ball devotees in the big cities, mainly on the East Coast. Until …

“The biggest break he got,’’ Archibald said, “was when they started putting out the DVDs."

If you know who Alimoe is, and you don’t hang around Rucker Park or dozens of other venues in New York City, And1 probably is the reason you know him.

Nearly five decades ago, Archibald, hailing from the South Bronx, became a household name by bringing his blacktop wizardry to UTEP and then the NBA, where he remains the only player to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season.

“The way people talk about ‘the playground’ and ‘playground ball’—we all started out on the playground," he said. “I started there. Some would call me a ‘playground legend.’ That’s where I learned it. I played all over the place, had all the moves. Does that make me a streetballer? I don’t know. But I got a chance to play in the NBA."

Owner of a championship ring and in the Hall of Fame, Archibald is largely the exception to the rule. In another era, Alimoe would be another word-of-mouth legend, like Pee Wee Kirkland and Earl “The Goat” Manigault, with talent renowned everywhere but the big-time colleges and NBA.

Very likely, so would his contemporaries, known by their streetball names: The Professor, AO, Hot Sauce, Half-Man Half-Amazing, Spyda, Escalade.

Except that they all became household names, too, as recognizable as Shaq, Kobe and LeBron for a while, thanks to a genius marketing decision by the And1 shoe company. The videos that circulated of the players’ on-court brilliance and flair for entertainment brought the full atmosphere from the hardcourts to the masses.

From the Mixtapes sprang the commercials, then the trash-talk T-shirts, then the And1 Tour, then the NBA arena dates, then the ESPN “Streetball” reality series (with eager hoopsters trying to play their way onto “the bus”), then a parody skit on “Chappelle’s Show” (featuring And1-style baseball, tennis and bowling), then, in 2005, the cover of Sports Illustrated.

And, in the middle of that sudden burst of national fame, there was the ascent to the NBA of Rafer Alston—immortalized by the Mixtapes as Skip 2 My Lou, bonafide Queens-born playground star.

Alston played parts of 11 seasons from 1999-2010, but the interest in him and his progress accelerated in 2004-05, which was both the year the And1 phenomenon was peaking and the season he started at point guard for the Raptors.

“He’s one of the guys who defied the odds," Archibald said, with pride. “He played a versatile game that could change at any time. He didn’t go to the NBA and play the streetball style, although he could—he just knew that he had to play another way, and he could.

“He’s the guy who got the chance. The rest of the guys, maybe not, but he got a chance. He proved that ‘no matter where I play, I can play, and I can make the league. I’m good enough.’ You knew from his body language. The confidence was exuding out of him."

Alimoe didn’t lack for talent—according to the Sports Illustrated story, the original tape of Alston was of an epic duel between the two at Rucker Park—or confidence, or desire. If there was a league anywhere that was interested in his 6-7 frame, wondrous ballhandling and passing skills and competitive demeanor, he went there to play, whether it was a minor league in the U.S. or a pro league overseas.

One of his stops, in 2007 and ’08, was in the Washington area in the now-defunct Premier Basketball League, for a now-defunct team known for signing “gimmicks” like a 7-9 player from China billed as the tallest in the world. The D.C. team, naturally, hoped to capitalize on Alimoe’s And1 name value.

Once, on the occasion of the team signing Tamir Goodman, known as “the Jewish Jordan," who had once caused a stir in college because he declined to play on the Sabbath, Alimoe was asked where else he had played besides the famous streetball tour. “Man," he said with a laugh, “I’ve been everywhere."

He certainly was known everywhere, for a time. “He’s just one of the many, many guys who never got that chance," Archibald said.

Because of his health, Alimoe gradually began fading from the active basketball scene. Fans jumped onto the websites that follow the game asking whatever had happened to him, posting old clips of his videos, hoping to smoke him out of obscurity.

They heard the news late Monday night, just over two years to the day that another And1 star, Escalade—better known as Troy Jackson, the younger brother of NBA star and current Warriors head coach Mark Jackson—had died.

The only consolation from Alimoe’s passing: The memories of playground ball’s day in the sun sprang back to life. On the And1 Mixtapes, and in the minds of all who saw him and his fellow ballers, he’s still very much alive.